Muslims rejected the Trinity as polytheism and carnal generation

Evidence

Guibert thought that it was the first thing popularly attributed to Muhammad; and much later Fitzralph was to characterise ‘this pseudoprophet … whose attempt was always and above all things to persuade (men) that there is no Trinity of Persons in God, and that Christ was not God’. This was almost the definition of Muhammad’s teaching … It was general to put the denial of the Trinity at the beginning of any account of Islamic teaching. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 970 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

But he also wrote the lengthy and rancorous Kitab al-Fisal fi-al-Milal wa-al-Ahwa’ wa-al-Nihal, or ‘Book of Distinction in the Religions, Heresies, Sects’, in which he sought to demonstrate the superiority of Sunni Islam to all other faiths and sects. … According to Ibn Hazm, Christians had tampered with the New Testament and removed prophecies concerning the coming of Muhammad. They corrupted the Gospels with lies. ‘All this shows the Christian community is altogether vile.’ — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 80 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It was held that the Qur’an itself admitted the truth of the Trinity. Oliver of Paderborn sought ground common to the two religions in terms like ‘breath of God’. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval Christians invented a distorted Muslim Trinity as mirror of their own faith — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 186; Medieval Christian polemicists understood Islam’s Trinity objection despite lacking sympathy — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 973; Medieval poets projected a pagan trinity onto Muslims mirroring the Christian one — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists…, 84 (+14 more)

Related

• Medieval Christian writers defined Muhammad’s teaching chiefly as denial of the Trinity. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Muslims attacked Christian Trinity and Incarnation as blasphemous polytheism (similarity 0.84)
• Muslims held that Jews and Christians corrupted their scriptures (similarity 0.84)
• Lull never sincerely engaged actual Muslim objections to the Trinity (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval polemicists distinguished what Muslims believed from what they only thought they believed. (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval theologians cited the Qur’an as implicit proof of the Trinity (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians invented a distorted Muslim Trinity as mirror of their own faith (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval polemicists coerced the Qur’an’s own terms into proofs of the Trinity (similarity 0.83)
• Lull argued Muslim monotheism was incomplete, not false, and only the Trinity proved it. (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christian polemicists understood Islam’s Trinity objection despite lacking sympathy (similarity 0.82)
• Rational proofs of the Trinity never convinced informed non-Christian disputants (similarity 0.82)
• Lull taught lay Christian merchants to prove the Trinity to Muslims (similarity 0.82)
• Scholarly polemic failed because it never spoke in terms Muslims could recognize (similarity 0.82)
• By 1250 the unity-of-God doctrine was common Christian knowledge about Islam (similarity 0.81)
• Muslim polemicists accused Christians of corrupting scripture and polytheism (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christian writers defined Muhammad’s teaching chiefly as denial of the Trinity. #corroborates (0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 970
• Medieval theologians cited the Qur’an as implicit proof of the Trinity #contradicts (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997
• Muslim polemicists accused Christians of corrupting scripture and polytheism #corroborates (0.85) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 80
• Medieval Christians invented a distorted Muslim Trinity as mirror of their own faith #expands (0.80) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 186
• Medieval poets projected a pagan trinity onto Muslims mirroring the Christian one #expands (0.80) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 84
• Medieval Christians reduced Islam’s prophethood to three prophets, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad #expands (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 136
• Medieval Christians lumped Jews and Muslims together as carnal and sensual peoples #expands (0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 228
• Lull never sincerely engaged actual Muslim objections to the Trinity #contradicts (0.80)
• Medieval Christian polemicists understood Islam’s Trinity objection despite lacking sympathy #qualifies (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 973
• Medieval Christians could not accept that devotion and unchastity could coexist in Islam #expands (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1189
• The medieval Christian image of Islam was self-referential and internally self-correcting #expands (0.75)
• Rational proofs of the Trinity never convinced informed non-Christian disputants #complicates (0.75)
• Lull taught lay Christian merchants to prove the Trinity to Muslims #expands (0.75)
• An enslaved Muslim scholar out-argued English Christians on the Trinity #exemplifies (0.75)
• Medieval Christian-Muslim disputation mostly argued from premises neither side shared #expands (0.72)